*sadface*

[ratherastory]

I sometimes wonder what show people are watching.

Clearly, it's not the same one I am.

If you need me, I will be over here in my happy bubble that is free of ship wars, character-bashing, and show-bashing in general.

Comments

[maenad.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It's always a relief to find sane people, you know? :)

I keep thinking of the scene in Hunted, where Dean asks Gordon how someone like Sam could become something monstrous. Because there's the answer - he can't, as long as he's Sam. Extract the essential Sam-ness of him, though, and you have a problem. There's no way of telling when he'll lie or what lines he'll be unwilling to cross, because 'Sam would never do that' is no longer helpful information.

It all strikes me as so very sad, because the whole past five seasons seemed to me to be about Sam discovering his own agency. He didn't have to be saved or be killed - he could save himself. And that in turn meant that Dean could put down the unwanted burden of being the arbiter of Sam's destiny and just be on his side. But now - there seems to be little choice but to put Sam in someone else's power, because he can't be trusted to make decisions he'll be able to live with later. I'm not complaining, mind, because I think screaming moral outrage that this has been done to them is what the show wants from me - it's the only way to top 'and then their lives were orchestrated to bring about the end of the world'.

Also - GAH! I'm a recent convert, and this business of not being able to just pop in another DVD until I get to an episode that doesn't make me hyperventilate is very stressful. :)

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Augh! Me too! I converted last October/November, so I had to live through two hiatuses, but it's still really hard!

'Sam would never do that' is no longer helpful information.

I KNOW! OH MY GOD MY HEART!

*clutches chest*

I am kind of sad that all of Sam's hard work to recover/acquire his own agency has been reduced to "Sam needs saving —again," but as de_nugis pointed out in another thread, this time it's more about what Dean needs than what Sam needs. Sam has proven that he can save himself, that he can be a person in his own right and make the correct, moral choice. Now Dean needs to be shown that, contrary to all the previous times, he can save his brother, and he isn't as powerless/useless in the face of Sam's overwhelming destiny as he's always been told he is.

[maenad.livejournal.com]

*nods!* I saw that ... um, about a minute after I posted. :) It's an excellent point - and I also think that it has the potential to be a good way to get them to be friends again. Because this isn't an injunction laid on him by John or (so far) about saving the world - it's about Sam's value as a person.

If it's enough that the world didn't end - good, we're done. If it's enough that Sam is apparently not spending the rest of eternity with Lucifer - good, we're done. If it's enough that Sam himself isn't greatly bothered by how things are (if only because he can't be) - good, we're done. But it's quite clearly not. Dean doesn't like Sam at all right now - and that's okay, because who would? - and that fact quite clearly distresses him no end. Which makes restoring Sam simply for the sake of having him be Sam important in itself.

I have some (possibly starry-eyed optimistic) hope that the game of one-upmanship between Bobby and Rufus can be read as foreshadowing. They do the 'I've saved you more than you've saved me' and 'I don't need your help, really' thing because it amuses them, but they're not keeping score in any way that matters. And that's what Sam and Dean have to aim for.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Quite. It would really be nice for the boys to be friends again, instead of just allies who are together only because they feel obligated to be.

The game of one-upmanship between Bobby and Rufus made me giggle, because they obviously don't really care that much about it. :)